"Sins Power"

If you wanted to gain a complete insight to what the Bible is about, what God was driving at from eternity, just read Romans 4-8. Those chapters contains the whole in an abbreviated way. But in closer examination of these chapters, Romans 5-7 give us a profound insight to sin. Sin is personified! Sin is seen as a slave-owner! Sin is a king that reigns over people! Sin is a lawgiver! It tells us the controlling power of sin over man. Sin is presented not in wrongs that we do but as a power that controls human lives. I hear preachers define sin as "missing the mark." It is true that is what sin accomplishes but sin is powerful and it will take over one's life, even those with the best of intentions! It permeates every human life on this earth. It's a pollutant that spreads itself like bad drinking water. It is like smog that fills the air of many cities and people breath in those contaminants. Sin takes over a persons life.

In Romans 7, Paul is describing himself before he came into Jesus. You can see the master-slave relationship sin had with him. Paul knew the Law (Old Testament teachings) and stated it was holy, righteous and good. The Law was not the problem. Sin took complete advantage of him through the Law and killed him spiritually. Sin is that powerful! Sin took him into going against the very things of God. He wanted to do good and right, but kept failing. Have you ever been there? He was confused as to why he could not follow God, doing the right thing, even if his mind wanted to do right! His conclusion was one thing: SIN! Sin dwelt inside him, the one who wished to do good. This powerful thing called sin repeats itself over and over in the lives of every adult human today. That's why people do not know what to do to overcome things in their lives. Preachers of the Lord's church are heading out to get counseling to overcome their anger problems, sex addictions and many other things. People are enslaved to alcohol and drugs, not realizing sin has hold on them, turning to man for their answers, only to fail again and again. Sin is real! Sin is powerful!

When Jesus offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice for sin, He wasn't just dealing with forgiving individual sins. Jesus was destroying the kingdom of sin!! He came into our world as one of us, resisting the power by the Holy Spirit, He defeated sins power in sins world! He would not accept sins kingship or submit to its laws. He defied the power and when sin tried to take Him down, God raised Him up giving Him complete triumph over sin. He offers us more than forgiveness! He offers us power: power to live and overcome sins temptations! He destroys the working of sin in our lives if we would simply come to Him in faith, being united with Him in baptism and raised with Him to this newness of life, the power of God. Why do we seem to be so easily defeated and overcome? Maybe we do not see who our Lord and Savior really is to overcome in our own lives.